Japan's version of La Cosa Nostra is the yakuza. Like Mafiosi, they too are organised into crime families. While small in number, their influence is bigger than you might think. Naturally, most of the obviously dodgy activities in society come under the purview of the yakuza, such as drug dealing, prostitution, pornography, gambling, extortion and loan sharking. They are also big-time operators in the construction industry. Worse, it seems that many yakuza groups, flush with cash collected over the years, have investments in so many legitimate concerns in Japan and abroad that it is difficult to extricate their tentacles from legitimate businesses.

This Is Japan

Even gangsters have to look the part. The typical older yakuza wears an expensive dark suit and sunglasses and keeps his hair in a tight permanent wave. He will have a tattoo - sometimes a whole set decorating his back - and as he walks through Japan the crowds will part before him. No one, it seems, wants to confront one of these guys.

A lesser form of the yakuza is known as chimpira. Kind of like yakuza wanna-bes, these younger guys are found at the lower rungs of criminal activity. Their most visible activity is loitering around train stations in sharp clothes, looking to recruit young women for employment as bar hostesses or worse.